“Oh my, why that expression? I was just thinking how delicious the croissant looks. Please try some, Count.”
I quickly grabbed a croissant with tongs and placed it on his plate. He frowned, looking at his own plate and then at me with disapproval, as if annoyed by my nonsense.
I smiled slightly and shrugged.
Edmond let out a shallow sigh and spoke.
“Today, I shall accompany the Countess on her outing.”
This time, as I was about to pick a croissant for my plate, I dropped it listlessly.
‘…Why you?’
Edmond, elegantly wiping his mouth with a napkin, said, “Can we be sure the mansion fire yesterday wasn’t intentional? Someone might be targeting the Countess.”
‘Isn’t it you?’ I thought, suppressing the rising words.
“Besides, there are no knights in the mansion at present, so it falls to me to assist the Countess.”
He laid down the napkin, sending me a cool look.
Such an honored guest.
I responded with a faint smile to his insistent gaze.
‘He means to keep watch.’
I was offended at being treated like a dangerous person, but it was also an opportunity to prove my harmlessness to Lirien.
Even after intercepting and reading my letter to the Emperor, he needed to see for himself to be satisfied, indicating his meticulous nature.
I narrowed my eyes.
“What an honor to have such a distinguished gentleman accompany me.”
“It’s my pleasure,” he replied.
Ha, his eyes said ‘it’s my pleasure,’ but they were incredibly menacing.
Lirien, oblivious to the silent battle over the table, clapped her hands happily.
“Damn it!”
Devon, lying in bed with a scantily clad woman’s shoulder under his arm while reading a letter from his mother, suddenly got up.
He read the letter again with wide eyes, but the content remained unchanged.
Etrisha Vuiel, my wife, knew about the affair and had declared a divorce, coldly and decisively.
Devon’s face turned pale. He quickly stood up, pulling up his sagging pants.
“Damn it…! Damn it…!”
He almost stumbled several times, his feet getting tangled in the dragging hem.
Until now, Etrisha had never mentioned divorce.
Even when despised, hysterically attacked by Antara, or neglected, she always forgave him when he later sweetly whispered a few words.
Always, it had always been like that.
But divorce?
Without consulting me! It was a complete disregard for me. What did she take me for…
Boiling with anger, Devon violently tore the letter strewn on the bed.
What had his mother been doing while the situation deteriorated to this extent?
Even a worm wriggles when stepped on.
Enduring a husband’s infidelity as a sign of a lady’s modesty was fading, and so was the noble culture of avoiding divorce. Etrisha could have declared a divorce.
Yes, declared.
Devon gritted his teeth and picked up his fallen shirt.
He needed to rush to Etrisha, hold her, whisper sweet nothings, and pretend to love, as he always did.
Antara couldn’t do it. It was something only he could do.
“Are you leaving already?”
The woman, who had been asleep, slowly opened her eyes. Wearing a thin slip that revealed her voluptuous figure, she wrapped her arms around Devon’s waist.
As I was buttoning up, Devon pushed the woman, who was nuzzling her face against his back, away with a cold expression.
“Move aside, I don’t have time for you, you fool!”
“What?”
The woman blinked in surprise. Such words were unexpected from the man who had shared love with her until dawn.
“Why the sudden change, Dean?”
She used one of the countless pseudonyms he had carelessly thrown around.
Devon scoffed at the name and picked up pieces of the torn letter, intending to destroy the evidence.
He headed straight for the door, with the woman hastily following, but he coldly opened the door and left.
“Where are you going, Dean? Come back!”
Where to? Obviously, to Etrisha, the woman who adored him, or more precisely, to preserve everything that satisfied his desires.
His face wore a cunning smile as he hurriedly called a coachman and headed for the estate.
In the carriage heading to the square, Edmond sat opposite me.
He observed the outside world through the window, indifferent, his neatly tied hair and simplified attire highlighting his splendid appearance.
Our eyes met as he irritably brushed his unruly fringe. I smiled reflexively, and he looked at me with a detached gaze before speaking.
“Why have you decided to divorce Count Vuiel?”
A good question. Half-hiding my face behind a fan, I looked down and touched the corner of my eye.
“That man continually committed adultery. Every word he whispered, every affection, was a lie.”
“Countess Vuiel…”
Edmond’s eyes widened as he looked at me calmly.
“Your words of comfort have been heard. You don’t need to make me feel miserable—”
“Staring into my eyes won’t bring tears.”
Hmm, that didn’t work.
I opened my dry eyes wide and fluttered them.
Ha, Edmond chuckled in disbelief and shook his head. Sympathy and appeal obviously didn’t suit me.
My Step-brother Is Obsessed With Me (Female-dominant)
A gentle female protagonist vs pitiful in the early stage, and a sick male protagonist in the later stage
Cheng Songer transmigrated into the body of a vicious cannon fodder female supporting character with the same name as her in a female-dominant novel.
In the original story, the cannon fodder female supporting character was inhumane, committing domestic violence, gambling excessively, being lustful, and even wanting to sell her stepbrother to a brothel for money.
As luck would have it, she just happened to transmigrate at this time.
Seeing Cheng Qingzhi biting his lip, enduring the tears in his eyes, looking pitiful, her heart softened.
She stuffed the money back into the Madam’s hand and reached out to him.
“Brother, come home with me.”
